Investigation: Chronic pain patients denied life-saving medicine because of opioid crackdown
PITTSBURGH —
Action News Investigates has learned the war against opioids is causing collateral damage — chronic pain patients who are being denied life-saving medicine.
Watch the investigative report by @VanOsdol_WTAE in the video player above.
Medical experts said the government crackdown on opioids has had a chilling effect — causing doctors, pharmacists and insurance companies to severely restrict access to opioid painkillers.
Cris Orlando uses electrical stimulation to treat a severe spinal condition. But that is not enough to ease the pain.
“A 7- and 8-level pain, to be in that all day long constantly, you want to give up,” he said. “I can’t function. I can’t help my wife around the house. It can be deadly. I mean the depression sets in quick.”
That’s why Orlando said he needs an opioid patch.
But it took six months after he moved to Creighton before he could find a doctor who would prescribe opioids strong enough to treat his pain. He told one doctor he was desperate and worried he might kill himself.
“I went in and said, ‘Will I have to bring my guns to the pawn store again because I’m afraid,'” Orlando said.
Jacqueline Schneider, of Independence, Beaver County, said she knows the feeling. She has multiple spinal conditions that cause severe pain.
“It felt like flesh being torn away from bone or something,” she said.
Last year, she was able to get a prescription for opioids, but she could not find a pharmacy that would fill it.
“I called six (pharmacies) in my area, chains and independents, and every single one of them told me they wouldn’t fill my medication for me. I just felt hopeless. I felt totally hopeless,” she said.
Like Orlando, Schneider was eventually able to get her medicine.
But experts said the difficulties facing them and other chronic pain patients is a national health crisis.
“It’s terrible,” said Dr. Ryan Marino, of UPMC.
He blames the government’s crackdown on doctors and pharmacies who overprescribed opioids, contributing to the epidemic. Now, he said, many physicians are afraid of prescribing any opioids, even to patients who legitimately need them.
“I think the response has been mostly to stop writing them. There really isn’t a middle ground here and most people don’t want to risk that and they’ll stop writing those prescriptions,” he said.
Even if doctors write an opioid prescription, Rosemary Mihalko said pharmacists like her may not fill it, because they fear a government crackdown.
“The biggest concern, honestly, is getting shut down and having your license revoked,” Mihalko said. “It’s easier to turn someone away, even though that’s not the right moral thing to do. It’s safer not to have our license on the line for that.”
One big reason for the concern is a guideline from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that encourages doctors to reduce prescriptions for opioid painkillers. In the three years since the guideline came out, opioid prescriptions have dropped significantly. That sounds good, but some doctors are pushing back against the CDC, saying the guideline needs to be clarified to avoid harming patients who legitimately need these drugs.
Earlier this year, 300 medical experts signed a letter to the CDC saying doctors and pharmacists are misapplying the guideline, resulting in unnecessary suffering, illicit drug use and even suicide for pain patients.
Among the signers were three former White House drug czars and Marino.
“The pendulum has definitely overswung here where we’re now hurting people with the response we have to people being hurt by overprescribing,” he said.
In a statement, the CDC said the guideline does not endorse mandated or abrupt dose reduction or discontinuation.
But the agency is studying the impact of the guideline on chronic pain patients.
Orlando and Schneider said they hope the government and the medical community will start listening to them.
“We shouldn’t be lumped in with the people who are addicted or abuse medication,” Schneider said.
“It’s just simply unfair to take people that are having chronic pain issues and cut them off of medications that are working,” Orlando said.
They said they have tried alternative therapies to reduce pain — including medical marijuana — and nothing has worked for them.
Filed under: General Problems
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